Gone for Soldiers: John Grove (1769 - 1851), Soldier?

According to this state grave registration card, John Groves, my maternal fourth great grandfather, served as a private (4th class) in the York County, Pennsylvania, Militia. Or did he?

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[Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Veterans Burial Cards, 1777-2012 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: Pennsylvania Veterans Burial Cards, 1777–2012. Digital Images, 3–5. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Bureau of Archives and History. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.]

The Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission's Archives for the York Revolutionary War Militia states that there were two Battalions formed, one in 1777 and the other in 1780. My ancestor John Grove would have been only about 11 at the time of the 1780 muster.

The source referred to on the reverse of the grave registration records is available online through the Internet Archive and there is indeed a John Grove on a list of privates serving in the York Township Militia on October 14, 1780 (although as far as we know John was living with his parents in Shrewsbury Township at the time). What appears to be the same man is also listed on a muster several years later as a Private "4th Class" in York Township.

[Pennsylvania Archives, Sixth Series, Volume II. Source: Internet Archive]

As far as we know, John Grove never applied for a pension as a Revolutionary War veteran even though he would have been eligible under the terms of the 1832 Pension Act so we have no testimony from him about his service.

I can't help but wonder if my ancestor really served in the Militia or if there was another, older John Groves who has been forgotten.


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